“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.”
I believe this to be true.
I’ve been broken so many times that I’ve lost count.
A couple of times, the brokenness nearly won, but for the most part, I came up with my head above water.
What breaks us doesn’t define us, but having the desire to put the shattered pieces back together does.
I was many times, in the broken places, at my strongest.
I can’t begin to explain the transformation; but there was one.
I’m still looking for lost pieces, but I have faith that if they are meant to be found, they will be.
I do believe Hemingway was spot on when he, a very broken man, said that string of words.
If one hasn’t been broken, they’ve yet to be born and can’t possibly understand the beautiful array of colors that a skewed, broken and pixillated life has to offer.
Until you break it, you can’t begin to know what is inside.
A bit like a Sand Dollar.
Once you’re broken, you can’t stop looking at all the intricate shapes, shards and pieces.
I’m not much on working puzzles, but the pieces and parts of life fascinate me.
I don’t start at the corners.
Instead, I start in the center and build outward because the corners will always be corners.
Those broken already know where the corners are; it is the center that perplexes us and makes us stronger than we would have been were we not broken.
I, as we all do, struggle sometimes.
It’s part of the journey.
If we don’t struggle, we lack understanding and in doing so, give up.
If we give up, the broken places win and the corners cease to matter.
I’m not a poor loser but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t prefer to win.
Romans chapter Twelve is my favorite place in the bible. Each verse speaks to me directly …
But this one, in particular, (Romans 12:12) speaks louder each time I read it …
It says “Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instantly in prayer.”
There are times I’m certain God doesn’t hear me. I know, as any believer does, when these dark, silent times come.
The silence is deafening.
Unnerving.
Unwavering.
But at others, when the silence is broken and I know He hears me, I’m mesmerized.
Goosebumps threaten to overtake me and nearly make me forget what I was praying about to begin with.
Life is hard.
It’s hard for everyone.
None of us have the franchise of a life unriddled with trials and hardships.
But it’s also, if you pay attention, riddled with joy.
To give up or give in is a selfish act that says we weren’t willing to fight; to survive.
A coward’s way.
I was a coward for much of my life.
I refuse to be one through the rest of it.
I’ll look for those missing pieces, lost friends, severed relationships, missed opportunities.
I haven’t always, but I do now; but, if I don’t find them, so be it.
I’ll find them somewhere along the way or understand they weren’t for me to begin with.
I’m OK where, often alone, I find myself.
I always have been.
Whom shall I fear?
A Photographer's Heart 